Kim Possible Galactic War
by Blue Kiwi
Summary: Humanity is losing the war against the Centurion, can a hero arise to change the tide of war
1. Prologue

**KP Galactic war Prologue.**

**By the year 2215 earth has been expanding to the stars, with a mass exodious to all M class planets. The exodus continued for over 100 years, with humans colonising over 75 new worlds. With the rapid expansion internal conflicts arose causing strife and warfare. For 25 years war ravaged until a earth based force rose up and brought peace to the warring systems, bringing them together into the Galactic Federation. Trouble still arose across the Federation with incursions by Lorwardian war parties and pirate raiders. To combat this the federation put together a Joint Unified Strategic Taskforce for Intelligence and Combat Enforcement, commonly referred to as Galactic J.U.S.T.I.C.E.**

**The Galactic Federation enjoyed expansion with relatively minor troubles with new races for 18 years. Then in 2363 the federation while exploring a new system on the fringes of the Federation, scouting parties to an unknown race were met. Initial contact did not go well, with severe casualties suffered on both sides. All following contact with the unknown force ended with losses suffered on the Federation's side. Despite the openly hostile nature of this new race conflict was kept to a minimum, until 2365. When without provocation the colony of Pearl was attacked. With only a small contingent of Galactic J.U.S.T.I.C.E marines in the colony to provide resistance, the following battle was decidedly one sided.**

**When reinforcements finally arrived the battle was long over, with no military survivors and only a few civilians rescued. Reports on the battle were sketchy at best. Most of the information gathered was from surveillance cameras, and old spy equipment around the colony that managed to survive. Only two facts were ascertained from these sources, 1. The heretofore unknown race they had been in conflict with was called the ****Centurion****. 2. They had been in the colony during the massacre in a very aggressive posture, with full battle armour on. **

**With this evidence in hand and a very public outcry for action against this atrocity, the president of the Galactic Federation had no choice but to declare war against the ****Centurion****. With this declaration the Federation mobilised the entire Galactic J.U.S.T.I.C.E battle force to meet the invaders. During the early stages of the conflict it quickly became apparent that the Centurion's had the advantage in technology, but humans made up for this with cunning and courage. The war ground on with numerous conflicts raging, but as the war progressed humanity slowly gave ground with more and more planets falling to the ****Centurion****.**

**During the later years of the war a ****Centurion**** strike force started to forge a name for itself, leading daring raids and assaults against impossible odds winning victory after victory for the ****Centurion****. This ****Centurion**** strike force quickly became feared and soon was known simply among humanities forces as the Reavers. Humanities forces also had heroes rise from among their ranks, one strike force in particular started to earn a name for itself. Using highly unorthodox tactics; out of the box thinking, and grim determination to achieve victory. Due to this mix of daring, determination and sheer madness, the strike force became known as the Madd Doggs.**

**Even with these daring raids on ****Centurion**** forces, winning battles and gathering vital information on enemy positions. It is not enough to turn the tides of the war in humanities favour. They have however done enough to be noticed by the ****Centurion**** forces. However of late an increasing number of rumours have arisen in the conflict zone that there is a third force attacking both sides.......**


	2. Heating the steel

**Kim Possible: ****Galactic War**

_Disclaimer: Disney owns Kim Possible, Kim Possible: __Galactic plot line owned by 'Blue Kiwi'._

Terms

Weapon 'ready' position Rifle in the shoulder, barrel up following the line of site.

Weapon 'high' position Rifle in the shoulder, barrel down cross body. Easily put in 'ready' position.

Weapon 'low' position Rifle at waist height, barrel down cross body. Slower put into 'ready' position.

All three positions both hands on weapon. Master hand on grip with trigger finger outside on trigger guard, off hand on fore grip.

Chapter one: Heating the steel

**23 02 2375 Planet Killigan**

Coming over the rise, and looking down on the valley below the rider stopped his hover cycle and looked at the carnage below. After observing the battle field for several minutes he reached his right hand up, touching a spot just behind his right ear and activated his comlink.

"_Alpha leader this is Mad Dogg one, sitrep over."_

Continuing to scan the area while waiting for a reply, after thirty seconds the rider again reached up to activate the comlink on his marine bio helmet.

"_I say again. Alpha leader this is Mad Dogg one, sitrep over."_

"_Mad Dogg one this is Alpha leader, proceed over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, at grid 376, 414. Over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, proceeding nor, nor east. Over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, have visual of combat zone. Am one click out, over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, There appears to be… discrepancies on the battlefield. Over"_

"_Mad Dogg one … Alpha leader, say again over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, I say again. There appears to be… discrepancies on the battlefield. Over"_

"…"

While waiting for a reply, the marine again scanned the field of battle to confirm the irregularities that were nagging at the back of his mind.

"_Mad Dogg one this is Delta Delta, confirm discrepancies. Over."_

'_Shit, what's she doing on the line?'_

"_Delta Delta … Mad Dogg one, unable to confirm discrepancies at this stage. The battle field is just… off, over."_

"_Mad Dogg one … Delta Delta, elaborate. Over."_

"_Delta Delta … Mad Dogg one, it does not appear that the __Centurion have assaulted Diablo's position. Over."_

"_Mad Dogg one … Delta Delta, confirm that there are no __Centurion bodies on the field. Over"_

"_Delta Delta … Mad Dogg one, negative. There ARE __Centurion bodies on the field, I say again. There are Centurion bodies on the field. They DO NOT appear to have assaulted Diablo's position. Over"_

"_Mad Dogg one … Delta Delta, explain. Over."_

"_Delta Delta … Mad Dogg one, Diablo's perimeter defences HAVE been activated. Yet there are no Centurion bodies on the ground moving up to the Position. All Centurion bodies are inside the position, and most appear to be facing out. Almost as if they were defending the position. Over."_

"_Mad Dogg one … Alpha leader, leave the battle field analysis to the experts. More likely the Centurion forces broke through the perimeter defences with no casualties and over ran the position. Over."_

"_Mad Dogg one … Delta Delta, agree with Alpha leader. Charlie Mike, over."_

"_Delta Delta, Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one. Confirm, Charlie Mike. Over, out."_

'_Du you idiot, leave the battle field analysis to the experts indeed. When was the last time you were in the field? Come to think of it have you ever been in the field. Ya Pompous git, and why if the Centurion are responsible for this, did they leave their dead behind. They never have before.'_

Reaching up the marine activated his helmets camera capabilities recording the scenes before him. He then compressed and sent the pictures to his squad's sig in a short burst transmission, in an effort to not give his position away with the high freq needed to send pictures.

There was one line of text with the broadcast. Felix, 'give these to the idiot for analyses.'

Sending the information back to his sections sig, who would forward the shots back to the main battle group command, was the only way to send high data transmissions. The helmets built in comms only had limited capabilities mainly used for short range comms. Unless there was com towers up, even then you were limited to what you could send. Only the sigs had the equipment needed to send live video feed and pictures back. The only way to get this type of information back to base was to data route it through the sig, or send the memory chip imbedded in the back of the helmet in. Seeing as how his chip wouldn't be going back to base until he completed this mission, that left sending the information packet through the sig. Of course he was reluctant to send the data to the section sig as this would alert his squad that he was in the field and not on a transport back to the fleet for long overdue R n R. Oh well he'll cop it later from his 2IC, nothing for it now but to continue with the mission.

Checking his equipment, he gunned the throttle on his hover cycle. His mind drifting back to three hours earlier, when he first got his orders...

KPGW

**Three hours Earlier Epsilon Base**

The Mad Doggs were in their barracks working hard cleaning their gear. They had just come out of the field the night before after recon around the Centurion defences, to ensure that they would not be intercepting any of the civilian transports as they were pulled off planet. The squad had arrived in late, only having time to clean weapons, eat and debrief before kipping down. The team had been up since 0600hrs cleaning their gear. Now four hours later all their battle amour, field gear, and personal areas were clean. They were just redoing weapons before cleaning themselves up ready to catch the shuttle that would take them for a well earned one month off planet leave.

Looking around the room all squad members were relaxed, in either PT kit or DPM trou with various tops on from t-shirts to skin. Weapons were in various stages of assembly waiting to be inspected, and all ammo off to the side to be accounted for. Monique was helping her husband, Felix to clean his cybernetic prosthetics.

Yori was inspecting Tara's and Reiger's rifles, over next to Horitaka who was polishing his katana. Brick was playing with the motor on his chain gun trying to get a couple more rpm out of it.

The chain gun was truly a fearsome weapon, especially in Bricks hands. Like the auto rifles, the chain gun was based on rail gun principles and magnetically accelerated slugs were fired out of it. While the technology for the weapons were easily able to be miniaturised making the weapons of an easily portable size. Unfortunately while armourers were able to maximise recharge rates for the magnetic capacitors between rounds, there was still only so much that could be done with current technology. The auto rifle could only fire 90 rounds per minute on full auto. So some genius came up with the idea of rotating magnetic capacitors to maximise firing rates, based on old twentieth century weapon designs (actually Ron knew the genius who came up with the idea, Wade Load. He came up with the design when he was fifteen). The chain gun was the result, an area weapon that could fire out 500 rounds per minute, although Brick had somehow managed to get his to fire 750 rounds per minute.

Barkin was reassembling the nozzle units on his flamethrowers. Ron had to suppress a chuckle every time he thought about Barkin. He had started out as one of the teachers at Middleton high, almost every solider in the room except for Yori and Rufus had been taught by him at one stage or another in school. After Pearl he had been one of the first volunteers to rejoin the Marines, in fact he had been Reiger's, Monique's, Felix's, Yori's, Rufus's, Tara's and his platoon commander on their basic and corp. training.

Sometime after they had finished and Ron and Yori had gone off to do their officer training, Barkin had requested another transfer into a front line unit, wanting to get back into the action. His request had been denied, again. Next thing you knew, Barkin had assaulted his superior officer and been busted down to a baggy. He didn't care, as he got that transfer he wanted. Ron had snapped him up for his section as soon as he had become aware that Barkin was on the front lines.

It was ironic in a way to have the man that was a huge influence on Ron's life when he was younger, who had been responsible for learning and discipline was suddenly reporting to Ron in a similar way.

Of course it was no coincidence that everyone in the Mad Doggs was either someone Ron knew in Middleton high school or in the case of Yori and Horitaka someone he had studied with at Yamanouchi. He had hand picked his team with two things in mind, one. They were experts in their field, and two. He knew them personally.

Which brought up the last member of the squad, Rufus, A fourth generation genetically enhanced naked mole rat. He had been Ron's pet growing up until the new sentience laws had them declared as an independent race. Then he had gone from pet to roommate, when Ron had joined up, Rufus had naturally gone with him. He had been one of the first naked mole rats to enlist, everyone had laughed at the idea. Now everyone was crying out for them, as they were the best scouts and trackers in the Federation. Of which Rufus was the best, of course his being trained in ninjutsu helped.

Rufus just had an annoying habit or two, and the fact that Ron couldn't see him at the moment, meant he was doing one of them now.

"RUFUS, you better not be modifying your ammo..._Again_." Ron barked

Rufus would modify his rounds, either sawing the tips off of the RG rounds or drilling holes in them and filling them with all sorts of substances from explosives to poisons. He also adjusted the shotgun shells as he sore fit, breaking the Geneva Convention. He always argued that the Centurion never signed the Geneva Convention so GJ didn't have to follow it with them.

Everyone in the room stopped doing what they were doing to look at Ron, Yori instantly jumped into action looking around for the mole rat. She quickly made her way around the cots to Rufus's area, noting his shotgun was missing she quickly made her way to the door of the barracks. Upon exiting the room she was assailed by a thick plume of smoke, looking to the left of the door she spied Rufus leaning back against the wall smoking a cigar.

Rufus stood four feet tall, and had incredibly broad shoulders and was heavily muscled. His most prominent feature though was his buck teeth.

"What are you doing Rufus-san, you are supposed to be cleaning your gear and getting ready for leave." Yori demanded.

"I'm always ready to leave, just ask anybody. As for the weapons they're good to go, as soon as you get off your fat ass and check them." Rufus responded with a surprisingly deep voice, without even bothering to look at Yori.

'_Oh good, Rufus is indulging his other bad habit. Smoking and pissing off Yori.'_

"Whatever happened to you Rufus-san, you always used to be so polite."

"Well let's see, I'm stuck in the middle of a war that we're losing. I've got the most dangerous position in the section that is always given the worst jobs. And on top of that, I'm probably going to die a virgin." Rufus deadpanned back at Yori.

Yori merely raised her eyebrow, and placed her hand on her hip. She just continued to look at Rufus, without saying a word to him.

Rufus not hearing a reply finally looked up at Yori, and noticed the look that she was giving him.

"O.k. fine, I may be over-exaggerating _slightly_. After all I've got a better chance of getting laid then our fearless leader has."

'_O.k. maybe not so good.'_ Ron thought as he rolled his eyes.

Everybody in the barracks laughed at that one.

"That's an impolite thing to say Rufus-san. Ron is just a gentleman, and is not looking for an insubstantial fling." Yori responded with aplomb.

"Does this mean that you'll stop trying to ginsu all the girls that try to approach him then Yori?" Monique commented from inside.

Yori was about to reply to Monique when she noticed a solider approaching the barracks. As the Mad Dogg's were the only ones billeted in these barracks at the moment, it meant he was here with a purpose.

Yori stuck her head in the door.

"Incoming solider, to clean to be front line Ron-san."

Ron sighed, "No rest for the weary, Yori finish getting everybody ready then get some grub into you before lift-off. I'll go see what the brass wants."

Ron strapped on his pistols and grabbed up his rifle, slinging it and letting it ride down his right side in easy reach if he needed it. He reached the door as the solider got to the bottom step. Ron gave him a cursory once over noting the soldier's rank and unit insignia. He was a young solider, possibly just out of officer training given his rank of 2nd louie.

"What does Du want now?" Ron growled at the solider before he could speak.

"Captain Du orders you to report to him in the command bunker, Commander Stoppable."

The young louie replied to Ron without coming to attention, politely, but an edge of nerves could be heard in his voice. Ron obviously made the solider nervous, not that Ron cared.

"What about, he knows we're due for leave."

"He didn't inform me as to the reason that he required to see you sir."

Ron frowned before sticking his head back in the door, failing to see what Du could possibly want. Especially as he was the one that had ordered the Mad Doggs to go on leave, and signed their leave forms personally. Ron doubted that he would be sending them on a mission, but you never knew with Du. There was nothing for it but to see what the pogge wanted. Everyone had stopped what they were doing and were looking at Ron as he stepped back inside the door.

"Felix grab your rifle, you're with me. The rest of you carry on. Yori I'll be back shortly or will send Felix back with the lowdown."

Felix quickly threw a t-shirt on and grabbed up his rifle, heading towards the door.

"Hey Stoppable, our shuttle is here in about one and a half hours for our leave remember. No missions, _**we're**_ on _Leave_." Monique yelled at Ron as Felix walked out the door.

"Damn, well should we kit up _now_ or _wait_ till they get back with the bad news." Monique said to the rest of the room.

No-one answered as they started to get their gear together, readying it to go back into the field.

KPGW

As Felix walked with Ron over to the command bunker he noticed the solider kept glancing nervously at Ron. He couldn't blame him Ron's reputation as a total bastard of war was wholly earned. He would only lower his guard around the Mad Doggs, and even then he was still guarded. Felix wasn't sure when the change occurred, when he went from a sincere carefree boy into a focused single-minded man.

All Felix really knew was that this started when Ron had been locked inside the Middleton museum from being on a field trip. He had been fourteen at the time. Some of the bullies had thought it would be fun to lock him in the monkey exhibit, where they were showing four funny jade statues. Someone had broken into the museum that night and Ron had somehow captured them. The museum had been ok with the only major damage being the four jade monkey statues had been destroyed. Ron had been a minor celebrity after that for a while.

Then four months later he had been on a student exchange for a week in Japan, while Horitaka took his place in Middleton. Nothing much seemed to change until the following year, when Ron had, had a nightmare. He had written the nightmare down and shown a few of his friends, mainly Monique, Tara and himself. Mr Barkin had confiscated the story when he had caught it being handed back to Ron, and gave Ron detention for the week. That was the last anyone thought about it, until a month later when it came true. The dream had been about the attack on Pearl.

Two days later some men had turned up and taken Ron away. That was the last anyone had seen of Ron till almost two years later, when he turned up for the start of their final year of school. Only it wasn't the carefree goofy boy that had left, it was the scary focused Ron that now led the Mad Doggs. Nobody knew, or those that did didn't say what happened. All anyone knew, or guessed, was that Yori was involved in some way as she had been his shadow ever since he got back. That was when Rufus had started to be nasty as well, but only to Yori. So Monique and Tara had blamed her for what had changed Ron, while they weren't as openly hostile to her now they weren't what Felix would call close in any way.

As Felix was musing on the past they arrived at the command bunker, walking in past the sentries Felix and Ron preceded towards the main briefing room. Upon reaching the briefing room and going inside, Felix was shocked to find Captain Will Du waiting in the command bunker in person.

'_Shit, this won't be good.' _Felix thought as he prepared for the coming face off between the two.

Will and Ron had anything but an amenable relationship, Will thought Ron was a gung ho cowboy who couldn't follow orders if he tried. While Ron thought Will was a rear echelon know nothing with delusions of adequacy trying to prove he was as good as any front line solider.

"So what do we owe to the _honour_ of Willy Du getting his boots muddy on planet?" Ron threw at Will barely looking at him.

"Is that how you report to your superior's now Commander? Show some respect, and salute." Will growled at Ron.

"Respect is _earned_, not given Du. You've done _nothing_ to earn mine. As for saluting, hey Felix wasn't a sniper reported to be in the area?"

Felix didn't want to get between the two officers, as they normally went at it like two dogs fighting over a bone. He reluctantly answered Ron anyway.

"Yeah, I believe that he got another two last week."

Ron smirked at Will, "Well it sounds like he's had a slow week this week. Let's give him something to do."

Ron turned to Will preparing to salute. Will meanwhile had visibly paled at the reminder of why you don't salute on the front lines.

"Ah that's ok, never mind." Will replied to Ron, annoyed that he had lost another point in his ongoing war with Ron. Still he tried to make it back anyway.

"Although how he would be able to shoot someone in the command bunker with their energy weapons? They would never get past the energy absorbers."

"The sniper's using one of our old RG-78s; more than likely grabbed it from Pearl when they sacked the place. He's modified the weapon up to his armours sensors by my guess. So he can see straight through even these walls." Ron replied with his smirk getting wider.

"Before you ask, that's what Serria's out doing." Ron replied anticipating Will's next question before he asked.

"So Willy, are we going to pass pleasantries all day, or are you going to tell us what we're doing here. And where, the fuck is Major Pain." Ron asked Will

"Major Pain is getting briefed on an upcoming offensive, which you don't need to know about. As for why were here, the Mad Doggs are being pulled out."

Ron looked at Will for a couple of seconds, before leaning towards Felix and saying "Well gee Felix; it looks like Willy boys on the ball, we're leaving the planet."

Ron then straightened up and addressed Will, "Of course we're being pulled, we're on leave you fucking idiot. Lift off is in less than two hours now and counting."

Will merely smirked at Ron.

"You miss understand me, you're being pulled out of this theatre and will be reassigned. As in you're not coming back."

Ron blinked a couple of times, looking at Will before he answered.

"What the fuck is going on Willy, there's no need for us to be reassigned like that. Fuck if half the rumours are true the Reavers are heading this way. They should be here by the time we get back from leave."

The main viewing screen lit up, showing Admiral Director.

"_Settle down Commander, as for the Reavers. It has been confirmed, they are now planet-side."_

Ron couldn't believe his ears, the Reavers and the Mad Doggs had been playing tag for over two years now. With either of them leaving a planet just before the other had arrived, or just missing the other as they left first. To actually have them on the planet at the same time…

Ron turned to Felix. "Contact Yori, get the squad prepped and ready. 3x front line, and tell Rufus he has free rein with his modifications. We dust off in 20 minutes, soon as I have the grid."

Felix raised his eyebrow, "3x? Sure that's enough?"

"You're right, better make it 6x front line." Ron returned.

"BELAY that order." Will commanded.

"Belay? Who the fuck say's belay. What are you in the navy Willy, and why would we _belay_ that order. This is our chance to get rid of those bastards, once and for all." Ron said with trepidation.

"You won't be doing anything, Commander. In case you've forgotten, you're out of here. The Reavers are not your problem."

Felix took a step back from Ron, who suddenly looked like he was going to murder someone. From the direction he was looking in, best guess was Will.

"You better have a damn good reason for why were not going after them Willy. After all we're the best chance you got of getting rid of them once and for all."

Ron had advanced on Will throughout asking him why they weren't going after the Reavers. Will looking a little panicked, was suddenly finding himself with nowhere to go.

"_Settle down Commander."_ Admiral Director ordered from the screen.

Once Ron had taken a step back and looked a little less murderous, Admiral Director continued.

"_Can you guarantee that you will be able to defeat the Reavers, Commander?"_

Ron looked at the Admiral, and answered without hesitation.

"There are no guaranties in war Admiral, so no I can't guarantee that we will be able to take out the Reavers. But the Mad Doggs have the best chance of anyone of doing it. I promise though that even if they win, _they'll lose_. We'll break them one way or the other."

Admiral Director shook her head.

"_Not good enough Commander, the only way the upper brass will let you go against the Reavers is if you can guarantee that you'll win. Nothing else will do."_

Ron looked suspiciously at the Admiral, something was happening here, but he didn't have enough information to see what.

"What does the upper brass have to do with anything? Why wouldn't we be allowed to go against them?" Ron queried

"_Two reasons Commander, one. The Mad Doggs are a high profile section. Yes I know none of the personal profiles of your section have been made public. But none the less, the tales of your exploits are well known. It is one of the most important PR champagnes we have at the moment. With every mission you successfully complete, you give that much more hope of turning the war around. If you were to die in combat with the Reavers, it would be a major blow against our troop's morale."_

Admiral Director let that sink in before she continued.

"_Two the Reavers have come here prepared, and ready to hunt the Mad Doggs down…to put them down."_

"WHAT?"

"As of 0800 this morning we got this incoming transmission from the Reavers. It was a clear challenge to your Mad Doggs."

Will turned around to the computer equipment behind him, pulling up an audio file to play.

An arrogant voice came through the speakers, clearly female even through the electronic distortion of her voice.

"_Human Forces occupying Killigan, you will stop harbouring the cowardly Mad Dogg terrorists and hand them over to be executed for their crimes against the __Centurion. If you fail to hand them over, then they will be hunted down and executed no matter where they run. Any human forces that are seen to be aiding them will also be publicly executed, with all the executions being broadcast throughout the sector. You have until midday today to comply."_

Ron just grunted, unimpressed with the challenge.

"Arrogant bitch isn't she, not their leader though. She's trying to hard…hmmm this could work to our advantage. There maybe some political derision in the ranks, this bitch may be making a power play to lead the Reavers. That might split their focus…give us a chance if we can play them against each other…"

Ron didn't have a chance to finish the thought, as his musing was interrupted by Admiral Director.

"_That's enough commander, the Reavers are not your concern. You will get all your gear together and report for your shuttle, as planned. In fact, I want you to report to me in person tomorrow at 0930 hours on the Pegasus. Captain Du, as you see fit."_

With that Admiral Director signed off. Will turned to look at Ron, who was clearly unhappy with this turn of events.

"You don't have to look so smug Willy boy, this doesn't change anything."

Will grunted at Ron's tone, "You're right this doesn't change anything, you're still an undisciplined amateur who has been very lucky. But that stops now, once you're off planet, we'll see about getting you some remedial training to knock that disrespect out of you."

Ron didn't even look at Will, turning to Felix with a smile on his face.

"Felix can you get a hold of Major Pain?"

Felix frowned, guessing where Ron was going with this, but not wanting to say anything in-case he was wrong and he put ideas into Ron's head.

"Surrre, do I dare ask why?"

Ron smirked, "If we can get him to contact Brigadier Blun D'Buss, we'll be able to get him to overturn Admiral Director orders. After all the Mad Doggs are part of the marine's command not the fleet's…"

Ron didn't have a chance to finish the sentence as Will Du got in his face.

"THE MAD DOGGS MAY BE MARINE STOPPABLE, **BUT YOU'RE NOT.** You're FLEET, you're just on loan to the marines. So there will be no going around this order just because you're not getting your own way Commander."

Will paused for a second with a smug smile coming to his face, before he continued.

"In fact just to ensure that _you_ get the fact that you take your orders from _fleet_, here are some new ones for you."

Will turned to the computers next to him pulling up a map of the area, highlighting an area 200 km away.

"We recently lost contact with Diablo platoon, their last sitrep came from these coordinates 2 hours ago. They've missed their last two sitreps, we've pinged their com gear and are getting a signal back from it but no-one is answering coms. They had reported sightings of Centurion in the area just before we lost contact. We need to know what's happened and we need to know now, as they've got the sigma decryption key locked open on their coms. I don't need to tell you what will happen if the Centurion gets their hands on an unlocked decryption key."

Will turned to face Ron, "I need you to go over to Diablo's last known coordinates and find out what's happened, were they contacted by the Centurion forces. If they were find out what's happened to the decryption key, if it's there retrieve it if able. If not destroy it, the Centurion are not to get their hands on it."

Will smiled at Ron, a very nasty smile.

"Given the coordinates it should take you three hours to get to Diablo's position, an hour to locate and secure the key and three hours to get back. The next shuttle after the mid-day one up to the Pegasus leaves at 1800, considering it's now…1047 hours that gives you just over seven hours to prep, leave and get back. The only shuttle after the 1800 one leaves tomorrow at 1000 hours, so I would suggest you get going Commander if you don't want to miss your meeting with the Admiral at 0930 hours tomorrow morning. And if you think you'll get a shot at the Reavers, their last know position was at the main Centurion base on the other side of the planet. That was about 40 minutes ago, so get that thought out of your mind."

Ron just looked at Will, knowing that he had him over a barrel. He couldn't ignore the order, as the decryption key needed to be secured. If the Centurion got their hands on one, locked or not they would be compromised in the worst possible way. But given the coordinates that Diablo was last herd from, they were well inside humanities lines. Nowhere near the front of the conflict, this was just a time wasting order done to piss him off. And it was working, but he couldn't ignore the order.

"Fine, _Captain_ Du. Orders received. Come on Felix, I'll need you to set up a comms relay for me so I can stay in contact with command."

Ron turned towards the door; Felix quickly fell in beside him as the moved across the room. Just as they were about to leave Will decided to get one last word in.

"Good idea Commander, you will stay in contact with me. My call sign will be _Alpha_ Leader; I'll expect a sitrep every hour."

Ron didn't even pause to acknowledge that he had heard Will, he just continued out the door. Will just continued to look at the door that Ron had walked out of when the main screen once more came to life, showing Admiral Director's image on it.

"_You really shouldn't bait him like that Captain Du, considering __**his**__ training if he decided to kill you, you would be dead before you even knew he was moving."_

Will turned towards the screen, to face the Admiral.

"He wouldn't do that, I may piss him off but I'm not worth the stain on his honour he would have of killing an inferior foe and commanding officer."

Admiral Director just chuckled, _"Doesn't mean he won't beat the crap out of you though, does it?"_

Will smiled, "There is that."

Will paused for a second before he continued.

"I don't like this plan, to much could go wrong. What if his section doesn't follow him, what if they're not there. When the Brass find out, they won't be happy about this."

"_Don't worry about the Brass, their orders have been given. __**If **__Commander Stoppable does just happen to wonder across enemy forces while retrieving the Sigma key, he will just have to defend himself won't he. His section won't be far away, they won't go anywhere without him. __**If**__ certain enemy forces do contact him they should be concentrating on Stoppable, the rest of the Mad Doggs should be able to hit them by surprise it they just happen to be nearby."_

"What if Stoppable isn't able to hold them off long enough for the rest of his team to get there…"

Will didn't finish his sentence, when he was interrupted by the Admiral's laughter.

"_Captain have you ever seen any of Stoppable's combat zones after a contact, or read any of his teams reports on him during a contact. The man is called __**Unstoppable**__ for a reason. No he should be fine, I would only have concern if he had assured me that taking out the Reavers wouldn't be a problem. No, he isn't going to rush into conflict with them blind, plus he's a master of improvisation. No this should work out nicely, and if there is a problem we still have our new operative. Given her demeanour and abilities she should be able to strike any Centurion forces when they're off balance and tilt the battle in our favour. Do we have a location on the Reavers yet Captain?"_

"We have had reports of a Centurion strike craft bearing their symbol, heading in the general direction of Diablo's last known coordinates. They may be looking for the Centurion strike squad that was sighted in the area."

"_Do we know why a Centurion battle group was in the general vicinity so far behind our lines yet Captain?"_

"They appeared to be looking for something in the area, must be important to be so far behind our lines with no backup and to send the Reavers in to bail them out. Still I don't like this Admiral, too much can go wrong."

"_Still you have your orders Captain, once Stoppable has left make sure the rest of his team is prepped and is following him__…discretely at a distance so they are nearby if he needs them due to any unforeseen contact that could happen."_

"Yes Maam."

KPGW

Felix watched Ron as they left the command bunker; he hadn't said a word from the time they had walked away from Captain Du. Felix had known Ron long enough to see that he had gone into mission mode, Du and his attitude, the Reavers and not being able to confront them now that they were on planet was forgotten. All he was thinking about was the sigma key and how he was going to retrieve it, what equipment was he going to need and how he was going to get there. What possible complications could come up, and how he would deal with them. Although to be honest, Ron usually dealt with complications by killing them or blowing up the surrounding area with as much explosives as he could.

As they were walking along a solider doing some personal PT came running up from in front of them. Felix gave her a quick appraisal as she approached them; she was about 5'6" give or take with a slim athletic build. _Possibly_ a gymnast given her build, but what stood out the most were her piercing green eyes and long red hair. As she ran past them Ron's eye's followed her, he pivoted to continue watching her as she disappeared around the command bunker.

Felix snorted as he watched his commanding officer.

"What is it with you and red heads Ron?"

Ron quickly pivoted back to the way they were heading, looking at Felix as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn't.

"I don't know what you what you're going on about Felix."

Felix shook his head at Ron's denial, "Anytime we get within a thousand meters of a red head you're checking them out."

Ron stopped, it took Felix a couple of steps before he realised that Ron had stopped. He turned to look at Ron who had a look of confusion on his face. It shook Felix to see the lost look on his friends face, but he couldn't say why.

"No I don't… do I?" Ron asked, clearly confused that he did such a thing.

Given the look on his face it was entirely possible that Ron didn't know he checked out every red head that came near him.

"Yeah you do Ron, every time you see a red head. Why?"

Felix was wondering what was bothering Ron, clearly it was something that was significant to him.

"I…don't know it's hard to explain Felix."

"Try Ron."

"Have you ever felt that something or someone was missing? Someone that should be there. That when you reach for them you're surprised that they're not there?"

Felix looked at his friend, shaken by what Ron had just said. He had known Ron since they were fifteen years old, aside from Rufus he was Ron's closest friend and he hadn't heard Ron like this. No, that wasn't entirely true; he had heard him like this before, ten years before. When Ron had told him about his dream of Pearl, and the battle that took place on the planet. That's when Felix recognized the look that had been on Ron's face, it was a look he had seen on Ron's face. Not Unstoppable, but Ron's, the boy he had been not the man he was.

Looking to change the subject Felix quickly responded to Ron, after he realised that he hadn't said anything.

"Or maybe you just need to get the balls up to ask one of them out, and get laid. That'd solve all your troubles, except with Yori of course… Sooo Ron what about this sigma key?"

The familiar look of disdain Ron reserved for anything to do with Du, came to his face as he started walking again.

"Bullshit orders, I ought to just ignore them and go after the Reavers."

Felix frowned, he couldn't tell it Ron was being serious or not.

"Why do you think they're bullshit orders Ron?"

"Think about it Felix, if a sigma key was truly missing do you think they'd send just one solider to retrieve it or a whole freaking battalion. No this is just Willy yanking my chain, to prove he's in command."

"Depends on the solider." Felix murmured, before answering more loudly, "So what are you going to do?"

Ron frowned as he turned, heading towards the armoury, instead of back to the barracks as Felix expected.

"I'm going to follow orders and go out to Diablo's last known position. The fact that they haven't checked in is reason enough for concern."

Felix frowned, confused as to why Ron wasn't heading back to barracks to get his gear.

"Ok, fine. But why are you heading to the armoury, all your gears back at the barracks?"

Ron smirked as he answered Felix.

"Three reasons Felix, one. The Reavers, as they're looking for the Mad Doggs I don't want to get caught by them alone showing my colours. So if I use plain amour without unit insignia they shouldn't pay much attention to me. Two, Wade said he had some goodies to show me. And three, this way the others won't know I'm in the field. That way they'll go on their leave without following me."

Felix sighed, now he knew why Ron wanted the comms relay set up. This way he could keep in contact with HQ, with out having to relay everything through him. This way the rest of the section would never know what he was doing.

"Fine, I can set up the relay, but all lager volume transmissions will still need to be sent through me Ron."

Ron barely looked at Felix as he arrived at the armoury and triggered the door to open.

"Larger volume?"

"Video files and such."

Felix responded as he followed Ron inside the building.

"That's fine Felix; just make sure the others don't know about it till after they're away."

"You do know that I'll have to stay on planet to monitor your transmissions Ron, and what'll I tell the others when they ask where you are?"

"Yeah I know that, you'll tell them there have been some discrepancies with our comm. logs and I have to go through them, and you'll be assisting me. I'll follow them up on the next shuttle; they won't need to know more than that. Add in that I won't be using my normal gear and they shouldn't suspect a thing."

Felix looked at Ron out of the corner of his eye as he replied.

"You really believe they'll fall for that Ron?"

Ron shrugged, as he paused at the door to Wade's inner sanctum.

"No, but it's worth a shot. And hopefully I'll be to far away for anyone to think of following me."

Felix looked at Ron sceptically, as they headed into Wades domain.

"Rufus will be pissed, and will more than likely come after you, _you know that_."

"It's not Rufus that I'm worried about, it's Yori. The sooner that Hero marries her the better, she might even calm down some."

Ron headed towards the workbench dominating the room calling out. "Yo Wade, you here man?"

The room was fairly large at least 20 meters by 20 meters; the workbench dominated the right wall as they came through the southern door. There was a door almost opposite the one they had just come through that led into the weapons and armour racks. Felix had no idea where the door on the western wall went to, as far as he knew no-one had ever been through there except for Wade.

Felix hesitated for a second; Ron was in a rare mood. He was volunteering information and ideas, instead of just giving orders and expecting everyone to follow them without question. Felix decided to ask a question that had been bothering him for years.

"So what's up with you and Yori, why's she marrying Horitaka?"

Ron looked at Felix for a second as if considering something, before he shrugged and answered.

"I'd imagine that she's marrying Hero because she loves him. As for Yori and me, there's nothing there, there's never been anything there. Everyone just assumed that we were together because we're close."

Close wasn't a term that Felix would have applied when it came to Yori and Ron, shadow was more like it. Everywhere that Ron went, Yori was there, just a step behind him to the right. Watching his every move, and of anyone that approached him. Ready Felix was sure, to kill anyone that did anything wrong or threatened Ron in anyway. It was why Ron never dated, even when he was the star running back of their school team, everyone was too afraid of Yori to approach him.

Ron scanned the work bench quickly, which was littered with broken weapons in varying stages of repair, before turning towards the door opposite where he and Felix came in. Just as he started to move towards it the door on the western wall opened and Wade walked through. Considering his young age, Wade was a giant of a man, both intellectually and physically. Standing almost seven foot tall, and built like a brick shithouse he towered over Ron and himself. Which was impressive considering Felix was 6'3" with his cybernetic enhancements and Ron was 6'5", but where Wade had a solid build, both Ron and he had a slim, rangy build about them. The only people that came close to the solid size of Wade that Felix knew of were Brick and Mr Barken, but Brick didn't have the height that Wade did. Of course if it came to a fight Ron would easily take out Wade, he could take out the whole section come to think of it. Wade had never been in a fight as far as Felix knew, and only knew how to fire all the weapons that the marines used due to the fact that he designed all of them. And had to know how they were working so he could fix them. But outside of battle Felix didn't know of anyone who could hold their own against Wade's intellect.

Wade had first come to everyone's attention when he was young, about when he was eleven or so. He had been kidnapped by some crazy old earth lord, who thought he was a monkey or some such nonsense. To make matters worse he was looking to become the ultimate monkey lord or king or something, and had been trying to get Wade and some monkey to take him to the stars to become unstoppable or unbeatable or some such. It was so long ago and Felix hadn't been entirely sure of the details to start with, Ron had known them though. In fact he had been on hand at the spaceport when the guy had been arrested, last Felix had heard the nutcase had broken out of jail and was now a mercenary operating on the fringes of civilised space.

Wade had managed to beat the man using his wits and some old electronic junk lying around where he had been captured. Funnily enough it was just after Ron had come back from Japan that first time, and Wade and Ron had become friends after that incident. He had just been a chubby little kid at that time, he had hit a major growth spurt during his mid teens when he had started to come up with improvements to the weapons Galactic J.U.S.T.I.C.E were using as well as modifying all the star ships in the fleet.

Now he was the primary weapons specialist in Galactic J.U.S.T.I.C.E, he was always coming up with new designs or modifications for the marines. Rumour had it he was working on battle armour to match the Centurions. If it was true, it would put humanity on an even footing for the first time since the start of the war. That's if the armour was a match for the Centurions weapons.

Wade upon seeing Ron and Felix in his domain, looked surprised for a couple of seconds before a smile of genuine happiness came to his face at seeing the two.

"Ron, Felix, What brings you two to my humble abode? Seeing as how you're supposed to be leaving the planet shortly."

Rom merely grunted, "Du has a mission for me, just came to grab some equipment before I head out."

Wade looked concerned, "Mission, now? What could possibly be so important that he'd send the Mad Doggs back out into the field at this stage? Not the Reavers that's for sure, the council specifically ordered the Doggs away from any type of contact with them."

Ron sighed and leaned back on the work bench, "Diablo's not reported in, they've missed their last two sitreps. I've been sent to find out what's happened to them, and their sigma key."

Wade looked at Ron for a second before replying, "Let me get this straight, you as the singular. Not the Doggs are being sent out to check on Diablo. Why? I've checked all their vitals on the monitors, and while slightly elevated no-ones dead. Du can check that from orbit without coming to the surface. As for the sigma key…"

Wade headed over to his work bench and started typing on the computer on the far end of the desk. He typed for several seconds before he turned back to Ron.

"It's locked down; encryption from it's running in the normal range no sign of tampering. So what's the real reason you're being sent out into the field Ron?"

A half smile formed on Ron's face at the conformation of the wild goose chase he was being sent on. "Du's trying to prove that he's the alpha male around here, and not some glorified desk jockey."

Wade laughed, before he slapped Ron on the shoulder. Felix winced, he'd been slapped like that a couple of times from Wade. If it wasn't for the fact that he had more cybernetics than most people, including Wade, knew about. Then he would have ended up lying on his face, as it was the slap still stung…a lot. Felix was surprised that Ron wasn't lying on the ground, through the sheer force of the slap. As it was Ron barely acknowledged that Wade had even touched him. He hadn't moved with the blow at all, not that Wade noticed.

"So Ron what do you need?"

"Full equipment Wade, I'm going into the field clean. No insignia, no markings of any kind to tie me with the Mad Doggs."

Wade lifted an eyebrow at the request but didn't comment on it otherwise.

"Not a problem, if you'll step this way gentlemen well see what we can do for you."

As Wade turned he picked a scanner off the workbench and tossed it over his shoulder towards Ron before heading towards the northern door.

"You'll need that Ron; it'll lead you to the sigma key. You know this is good timing, I've wanted to get you in to upgrade your equipment for awhile now."

Wade quickly punched a code into the keypad beside the door, before he headed in. Ron and Felix followed him into the racks. Aside from the command bunker, this would be the biggest building on the base. Located at the hart of the base, it armed and maintained the weapons for up to 10,000 soldiers. While Wade was the head armourer, he wasn't the only armourer. Coming through the door to Wade's private workshop into the racks, Felix could see workbenches laid out throughout the main floor, about fifty all up with one to three armourers working at each bench going over various weapons and armour parts. Men and women were moving throughout the area, reissuing repaired weapons and armour to soldiers to replacing lost weapons or weapons and armour damaged beyond repair, to weapons being placed in the racks, ready for issue to soldiers new to the theatre replacing the wounded and dead.

Wade led them through the organised chaos to he got to the armour racks, without looking at Ron he headed down the fifth rack talking all the way till he got about two thirds of the way down and he lifted the armour off it's rack.

"Lets see, you're about a what 50 Ron? Where are we, ahh here we are, try this on for size Ron. It's the latest armour all the same features as the mk 12 armour, limited environment control, sealed systems good to 3 meters in water, body temp regulators plus invisible to infrared and ultraviolet scans. Still working on broadening that wavelength range for better concealment to the wider spectrum of wavelengths, that is visible to the Centurions in their armour."

As Wade talked Ron continued to put the environmental underlay and armour plating on with the armour assist equipment built into the racks.

"The main modification is the armour plating…"

Wade reached up to Ron's shoulders and hit something; Felix couldn't quite make out what he did. The results of the action had Wade taking the front armour plate off, quickly and easily.

"… hitting the releases in the shoulders you can remove the damaged plating and replace it with new plating within seconds. That reminds me pick up some armour shards on your way out…"

Both Ron and Felix looked at Wade enquiringly at the mention of the armour shards.

"…the shards are designed to patch up armour in the field, simply hold the shard against the damaged area in the plating and trigger the activation area with kinetic energy against it and the shard will meld with your plating. Sealing the breach in your armour…"

Ron quickly interrupted while Wade paused for a quick breath.

"What happens it there's a breach in the environment underlay beneath the damaged armour?"

Wade blinked for a couple of seconds before answering.

"Oh I don't recommend that, the instant heat of the shard as it melds is enough to cause serous damage to any exposed skin area…"

"Right no skin contact, will it just activate against battle armour or can it be used against other surfaces. Say for instance, a breach in a drop ship's hold?"

Wade looked at Ron, considering the question.

"I hadn't thought of that type of application, but I don't see why it shouldn't work. As long as the hull breach isn't bigger than the shard, there shouldn't be a problem. The shard should activate against most substances as long as it's in contact with something on its activation side. It doesn't even need to be a full contact."

Ron gave Wade a nasty smile as he no doubt thought of weapon applications for the shard.

"Right slam the shard against any area and it will trigger, what's next."

"Right, next…"

Wade replaced the front armour panel on Ron's armour then headed back the way they'd come, While Ron quickly attached his pistol holsters making sure they fit snugly into the small of his back. Holstering his energy pistols and grabbing up his rifle Ron quickly followed Wade back into the rack, then Wade headed deeper into the racks before turning to his left this time stopping in front of helmets.

"These aren't the mk 7 helmets Wade."

"Nice eye Ron, no these are the mk 8 helmets, superior visuals with a 200˚ visual field. Amplified light as well as infrared vision and enhanced HUD targeting system that will work with all weapon systems. Breathers will filter 85% of all known toxins and sealed systems gives you 30minutes of breathable air. We've also moved the memory chip from the side of the helmet to the bottom rear area and reinforced the armour over it to provide better protection for the chip. Too many of them were being targeted and destroyed in the field. We've also made removal of the chip easier as well, simply push this area in and move it to the side and the chip will just pop out. Comms have been enhanced to give you a greater relay area, which will help with this mission. No change with data load over distance, and you still need to route them through the sig for security outside of the section level. But we have increased the security of the inter-section comms. themselves to stop the Centurion hacking them."

Ron took the proffered helmet from Wade, turning it over in his hands.

"You ever think that the chips were targeted on purpose to stop us getting certain intel back Wade?"

Felix inquired as Ron put the helmet on, quickly connecting the interface between the helmet and the armour.

Wade looked at Ron briefly while pondering the question.

"Oh I don't doubt that the chips are being targeted, the question is by whom. Not the Centurion that's for sure, they don't care what we see as they think we're not a match for them anyway."

Wade replied to Felix with a slight smirk, as he quickly checked the helmet systems.

"They don't respect their enemies, which will cost them." Ron snorted while settling his armour and helmet.

Felix turned to Wade enquiringly, while flipping a comment to Ron.

"Doesn't seem to have cost them so far Ron. I'm guessing from your tone Wade that the rumours are true then."

Wade continued to smirk, "Depends on what rumours you're talking about there Felix."

Felix just chuckled; he was used to this game from Wade. Wade loved to show off how smart he was, but tried to maintain a humble demeanour about him to try and not appear fatheaded. It didn't work, but it meant you had to ask him directly about anything before he told you about it.

"That you've perfected some battle armour that's equivalent to the Centurion's."

Wade had a huge grin on his face as Felix asked him the question, Felix couldn't help think that Wade sould be rubbing his hands together or twirling his moustache if he was one of those old B movie villains. Just as he gloated about his plan, right before the hero escaped from whatever trap he was in and beat him.

"Theoretically the armour will be far superior to the Centurion's armour, and seeing as how they don't seem to be able to upgrade theirs it will be easily modifiable to any environment or terrain that it would be used in. Add on that we can easily upgrade our weapons and we should easily be able to hit back at the Centurion and dominate them on the battlefield."

Ron merely grunted at what Wade had said, he had heard the same thing for years from various geniuses. All so far to no difference in the war effort against the Centurion, all prototype armours failed when put in the field against the Centurion's. And all for the same reason.

"It's not that they're unable to Wade, it's that they've lost the ability to do so. Which is a good thing believe me, you don't want to meet an evolved Centurion."

Both Wade and Felix looked at Ron, both were used to Ron just coming up with these titbits of information out of left field. The fact that they always proved true was however a concern, how he could get a hold of such information was beyond them.

"Are you sure Ron? No, never mind, if you weren't sure you wouldn't have said anything. Well this puts a whole new light on things and takes some of the pressures off for getting the armour working."

Wade responded starting to go off toward another area of the racks.

"What's not working with the armours Wade?"

Felix enquired as he followed Wade through the racks.

"We can't get a power source that's able to run the armour, anything we try is either to bulky or burns through the power to quickly to be combat effective. Love to know how the Centurion manages to do so with their slim lined battle armour."

Ron bringing up the rear of the group answered Wade's rhetorical question.

"They run bio energy through a crystalline matrix that amplifies the energy to power their armour. The side effect is it emits a background energy field that interferes with any power armour that we use against them. Any shotguns around here Wade? Double barrel if you got it, with the mag loader. I'll also grab one of those new RG 306 rifles with the under-slung grenade launcher if you've got one."

Ron quickly stopped as Wade turned to face him, a stunned look on his face.

"Energy field? We've never found any evidence of an energy field when scans were run on Centurion armour. What type of field could it be? And why would it interfere with our armour systems?"

Ron not even looking like he was listening to Wade, continued to look around at the weapon racks. Just as Wade was about to ask again, Ron answered.

"The armours you've examined were all dead Wade, that's why you never picked anything up. As to the type of field, it's a bio-electrical resonance field that disrupts electrical fields similar to an EMP. To counter the field effect, I'd recommend a quantum power source. As the quantum field should negate the bio-electrical field and give the armours the power boost needed to fight the Centurion amours."

Felix had to stop himself from looking surprised at Ron's answer; it was after all quite easy to forget that Ron had a master's degree in quantum physics. He had gotten it at the same time and Uni that Felix had gotten his master's in cybernetics, before they had joined up. They had even been roommates; even so Felix was always surprised when he would say something like this.

Wade looked like he was deep in thought, no doubt running the maths for the power source to see if it was possible. Almost absentmindedly he answered Ron's earlier question.

"The shotguns are over here Ron, only single barrel I'm afraid. Apparently after the Conrad debacle, no-one in the Mad Doggs is allowed to use the double barrelled shotguns. The RG 306 is three racks over; you want a chain gun as well? That reminds me tell Brick to stop tampering with his chain gun, the safety dampeners were put there for a reason. If he keeps cutting them back, he'll have his chain gun blow up in his face. And you forgot your Katana; we have vibro Katana's 14 racks over if you need one."

At the mention of the Conrad debacle both Ron and Felix grimaced.

"Damn Monique, she just couldn't leave it alone…"

Both Ron and Felix exclaimed at the same time, before Ron carried on answering Wade

"That's all right Wade, the rifle and shotgun combined with my energy pistols should be fine. As for my katana, it's right here."

Ron held up his hand and a blue glow enveloped his hand as a katana appeared in his fist.

Wade scowled at the katana as it appeared.

"Someday Ron, you're going to have to let me study that katana to see how it does that."

Ron merely grinned as he answered.

"Not going to happen Wade, you know that so don't ask."

Wade merely grunted at the response, but considering it was Ron there wasn't a lot he could do about it. So he took the reply as a hint to change the subject.

"I don't know why you bother with those energy pistols Ron, you know they just annoy the Centurion's. You should really change to the plasma pistols they pack more of a wallop and are incredibly effective against Centurion armour."

Ron just shrugged his shoulders as he headed towards the shotguns.

"That's ok Wade, they do me fine. Sometimes you just need to annoy a Centurion to get their attention, besides there are always other things to shot at beside Centurion in the field."

Both Wade and Felix looked at each other and shrugged as they followed Ron. Neither could understand why you would want to annoy a Centurion, they were bad enough without them being pissed at you. Although Felix could relate to shooting, other things in the field, like wild pigs. A plasma pistol wouldn't just cook the pig; it'd turn it into mincemeat. Not that any of the Mad Doggs would be _caught_ doing something like that.

Ron quickly gathered the new weapons, adjusted the shotgun and katana over his shoulders and headed towards the ammo point. Arriving at the ammo point Ron grabbed 4 x front line ammo and grenades grabbed half a dozen armour shards and med packs before he said a quick goodbye to Wade and headed towards the motor pool, Felix in tow.

Once they arrived they headed over to the Mad Doggs equipment area, and Ron quickly walked up to an old Harley ZR 07 low rider hover cycle. Once he was beside it he placed his helmet on connected the power attachments and put on his gloves. He then hopped on the hover cycle and placed his rifle in a holder on the side of the front forks before he started up the hover cycle and ran through a quick maintenance check of the bikes weapon systems. He then turned to Felix. His voice sounding distorted through the helmets speakers.

"O.K Felix you have your orders, make sure everyone is on the 1200 shuttle for leave. You are to go on the 1800 shuttle, if I'm back or not. Got that"

Felix nodded in response

"Good, I'll contact you directly if I need to and will avoid Willy. Can you set up a separate line for us?"

Felix smiled,

"Nothing easier."

Felix quickly leaned over and removed a panel behind Ron's right ear and mad some adjustments to the helmets comm. equipment. After a few seconds he closed the panel and tapped Ron on the head signalling he was done. Ron grunted and quickly gunned the hover cycle, heading out of the motor pool towards the main gate. Felix watched for a few seconds before he turned and headed towards his barracks.

Once Felix got to the barracks, he paused outside the door. He didn't want to go in and face everyone inside; even though they weren't going into the field he had no doubt that they would follow Ron. Orders to the contrary aside, stealing himself he opened the door and headed in. Upon stepping through the threshold Felix quickly pulled up short as he came face to face with eight heavily armed soldiers.

"Ahhhh shit, thank you Ron for leaving me to face this…_you bastard_."

KPGW

**30 minutes out from Diablo's Position**

Ron was gunning the hover cycle for all it was worth and had made good time; he was just thirty minutes out from Diablo's position when he started to receive an incoming comm. Checking he saw that it was from Wade of all people, quickly activating his comm. Ron responded to Wade, wondering what was up with Wade as he never contacted Ron in the field.

"_St Nick this is Mad Dogg one. Over."_

Wade quickly replied, sounding slightly panicky. He didn't even bother using proper radio protocols.

"_Shit Ron, it's bad. You need to get there. NOW!"_

Ron frowned, Wade was panicking. He needed to calm him down.

_St Nick…Mad Dogg one. Calm down, I say again, Calm down. Respond using correct radio procedure, over."_

Wade quickly responded once more not using radio procedure.

"_Ron, it's Diablo. The readouts for them were wrong, do you realise what that means."_

"_St Nick…Mad Dogg one. Damn it the procedures are in place for a reason, use them. Now, say again about Diablo. Over."_

"_Fuck procedures Ron, this lines more secure than the presidential one. And I should know, so we don't need the double talk."_

Ron just sighed, stopping the hover cycle so he could make a quick nav check. He had been following the GPS but he always felt better doing it the old fashioned way with map and compus.

"_Fine Wade, what's up with Diablo?"_

"_I was checking their sats, when I noticed an irregularity in the signal. I ran a system check, and they're dead. They're all dead, plus the Sigma key was not at their last known location. It's about 15 klicks to the south-east of their last position, a couple of life monitors were in the general vicinity as well."_

There was just static at the end of Wade's statement, no response was coming from Ron.

"_Ron, Ron are you there Ron. Do you realise what this means?"_

"_I'm here Wade; yeah I know what it means. Our entire comm. System has been compromised; our security has been hacked in a major way. This changes everything, contact Willy and let him know what's happened. He'll know what to do from there, I'll continue to Diablo's last position to scout the area. Better send me the other co-ordinates for the Sigma key as well."_

"_But Ron you're missing the point, Diablo's dead. They're all de..."_

Whatever Wade was going to say, was cut off angrily by Ron.

"_No Wade you're missing the point, someone hacked the system that was supposed to be unhackable. Posted fake monitor signals and fake GPS positions for all members of Diablo and the sigma key, all while jamming any outgoing signals from Diablo. Something even the Centurion has never done."_

Wade was quite as the enormity of the situation became apparent, over and above the deaths of Diablo platoon. Every level of security within GJ was possibly compromised; every password and code was going to need to be changed. All comm. signals were suspect, and may have been suspect for some time.

"_Sorry Ro…Mad Dogg one, I wasn't thinking. It just that I knew most of Diablo, you went to school with some of them. I'll get ahold of Alpha one now, over."_

Looking to ease Wade a bit Ron replied.

"_St Nick…Mad Dogg one. That's ok, you can't let it get to you. Unfortunately people die in war, you do what you can to save as many as you can. In your case, that means overhauling the comms. If that's secure, then you'll save more lives than me just shooting things. Oh and St Nick when I get back, we're going to have to change your callsign. Over."_

Ron heard a light chuckle come from Wade.

"_Mad Dogg one…St Nick. You know why they call me St Nick? It's because I've got all the toys for you girls and boys, and I know if you've been good or bad. Over."_

Ron smiled.

"_Mad Dogg Out."_

Ron quickly gunned the Hover Cycle and started heading towards Diablo again. After a couple of seconds a second set of co-ordinates appeared on his HUD.

KPGW

The hover cycle quickly traversed the terrain the short rider pushing the bike beyond what it was supposed to be capable of. Riding with a skill, that boarded on reckless. Many times, almost losing control on a tight turn only to recover at the last second. Chasing the signal of the hover cycle, that had passed this way a short time before. With only one thought going through the riders mind.

'Not too far behind now, I'll catch him soon. Then he'll be for it, the bastard.'

KPGW

**NOW**

Unstoppable came down the slope into the valley on his hover cycle, slowing as he got closer to the field of battle, moving towards the left of the battle zone. Scanning the area, Unstoppable took note of the terrain around the battle site. To the left of the valley looking down on where Diablo had fought was a cliff face about 1.5 klicks away. The cliff would have been about a shear 6 – 700 meters high, imposing on the area. If the Enemy had held that high ground Diablo would have been turned into mincemeat quickly. Judging from the impacts surrounding the area, no-one had controlled the cliff face. To the right of Diablo's position was undulating ground that quickly formed into sizable hills, with two ravines leading out between them at the 2 and 4 o'clock positions if he used where he had just come from as the six. It would have been a good area to pull back into if they had been assaulted from the cliff. Unless mines had been planted in the area first. But the Centurion didn't conduct mine warfare, preferring to attack head on for greater 'glory'.

Unstoppable continued to circle the area on his hover cycle, trying to determine where the attack had come from. Judging from the attack pattern, there didn't seem to be a central direction for the attack. Neither from the direction of the cliff, utilising the high ground, or from the direction of the hills looking to grind Diablo up against the cliff face. No attack had come from up or down the valley, all in all it was a shitty place for Diablo to make a stand. And Unstoppable couldn't see any obvious reason why they had made their stand where they did. Or any obvious direction from which the attack had come from, it was like the enemy had dropped on them from out of thin air…or come up from below them.

Unstoppable continued to circle the area after he had completed a lap of the battle field. Stopping when he was between Diablo's position marker, and the Sigma key's position marker on his HUD. Stopping his hover cycle about 500 meters down from the outer most impact zone, Unstoppable grabbed his rifle from the holder while getting off to the left of the hover cycle. He quickly placed the rifle into his shoulder at the ready, scanning the surrounding hills. Slowly pivoting to his left looking up the valley in the direction the sigma key went, round to the cliff face and down onto the battle field. Once he was happy that no-one was within the immediate vicinity, he lowered his rifle to the high position and reached his left hand round to his right ear and activated his comms. quickly returning his hand to the rifles foregrip.

"_Alpha leader this is Mad Dogg one, sitrep over."_

"_Mad Dogg one this is Alpha leader, proceed over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, am at Diablo's position. Over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, proceeding onto the battle field. Over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, have visual of combatants. Over."_

"_Mad Dogg one…Alpha leader, headcount. Over."_

Unstoppable lowered his rifle to the low position and gave the area a harder scan. He paused briefly, as a shiver went up his spine. Spinning quickly towards the cliff he took a step back as he scanned the cliff face once more. Seeing nothing he once more returned his attention to the dead.

'I thought for a second that someone had walked over my grave.'

He quickly finished his count and contacted base once more.

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, there's roughly 60 bodies on the field. About 25 human and 35 Centurion. Over."_

"_Mad Dogg one…Alpha leader, The Centurion overran the position, proceeded to next objective. Over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, negative. There are discrepancies on the field, am going to check it out. Over."_

"_Mad Dogg one…Alpha leader, Negative Charlie mike. There are no discrepancies. Over."_

Unstoppable sent a line of text to Felix. 'Felix, Hook me up with a direct visual feed to Du.' While he slowly advanced up towards the closest bodies with his rifle in high position, just as he was approaching the closest bodies a red LED started flashing in his helmet as he received a line of text back from Felix. 'And you're live.'

"_Mad Dogg one…Alpha leader, What do you think you are doing. The Centurion were killed overrunning the position. Over."_

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, If that's the case, why are there no RG round wounds on the Centurion bodies. Over."_

As Unstoppable responded to Du he was looking at the bodies before him, they were sprawled on the ground. One of the Centurions was lying face down, with the Marine lying face up over his legs. The second Centurion was lying on his side just to the right of those bodies. All three looked like they had been fighting back to back, and they all sported similar wounds. Unstoppable was about to bend down and examine the wounds closer when he once more felt eyes watching him. Spinning quickly back to face the cliff, he brought his rifle quickly to the ready. He then zoomed in on the shadows flitting along the top of the cliff, until he could identify the people who were there.

Unstoppable identified four Centurion warriors, two standing, two kneeling. He swallowed as he quickly recognised who it was.

"And I thought this was going to be a boring trip."

KPGW

Captain Du was in ops watching the screen before him as Unstoppable focused of Centurion on the ridgeline of the cliff that dominated the valley he was in. Four Centurion were identified three female and one male, one in pink and white skin tight alloy armour with a crest on the head. The second female was in green and black armour, again with a crest on her helmet. The third female was in tan and teal armour, she didn't have a crest. The male was in blue armour with black highlights, looking quite stylish. None of the armours looked like they had any weapons on them, but the slim line armour was deceptive. They had enough death rays tucked away inside them that one Centurion was easily the match for a section of marines.

Captain Du didn't need to be told who they were, he recognised them immediately. But he was a stickler for the book, so a formal i.d needed to be made. He turned to the young ops officer in front of the secondary screen.

"Lieutenant, do a i.d scan on the Centurion in pink."

The officer ran the image through the reconisation software. She had a hit back in seconds, confirming what Captain Du already knew.

"Sir it's a positive match. She's the leader of the Reavers."

Captain Du started to swear, this was all he needed. His best soldier out in the open in the middle of a kill zone, with the enemies top kill crew lining him up.

"Lieutenant, how soon till the Mad Doggs are on site?"

The office quickly checked the screens in front of her, before answering Will.

"If they leave now sir, they can be there in 45 minutes."

Will Du stopped and looked at the Lieutenant in front of him for several seconds before he said anything.

"**What do you mean if they leave now?** They should have been in the air and trailing Unstoppable for the last 90 minutes. They're supposed to be no more than 10 minutes behind him."

The young Lieutenant shrunk back into her chair as Will raged at her.

"Sorry sir but they were held at the drop-ship area, to wait for the order to deploy."

Will felt like striking someone, red tape and protocol had held up what was supposed to be a simple task. Get the Mad Doggs in the air ready to support their boss when he needed them. Instead they were still at base while some pencil pusher waited for an order that had already been given 3 hours ago. Once he found out who it was that had screwed the dog on this one, he'd have them doing latrines in the middle of no-mans land. While a bombardment was in progress.

"Get them in the air, NOW Lieutenant."

Now Unstoppable was screwed, out there with no backup. He'd hated this plan from the beginning. Will moved over to the comm. Station.

"Mad Dogg one…Alpha leader, This mission is a scrub. Pull back to base, we'll reassess from there. Over."

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, Negative. Charlie Mike. Over."_

Will looked up at the screen, not quite able to make out what Unstoppable was doing. He was no longer looking at the Reavers on the cliff. He was back to studying the bodies. In fact he was moving the Centurion bodies off to one side at the moment.

Will quickly contacted Unstoppable once more.

"What the blazes do you think you're doing Commander. In case you haven't noticed that's the Reavers over there, you know the Centurion war band that's after you head."

A reply was quickly forthcoming from Ron but not the one that Will had wanted.

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, maintain radio protocol. Over."_

"Fuck protocol, answer the damn question"

"_I'll take that order under advisement, Captain. As for the Reavers, they're after Unstoppable. Leader of the Mad Dogg and all round bad ass, I'm just a grunt with no rank or unit insignia. Therefore not their target. As for what I'm doing, I'm checking to see if any of Diablo's memory chips are intact to see who or what did this."_

As he was talking to Will, Ron kneeled down next to a marine and started to examine the body's helmet. Turning the helmet to the side, the destroyed right side of the helmet was revealed.

"_Damn that's the fifth one where the chip's been destroyed. These weapon marks aren't of Centurion origin."_

Will quickly replied to Ron, frowning. The scorch mark down the front was clearly from a Centurion energy sword.

"It's from a Centurion energy blade, why are you trying to find something that isn't there."

As Will was asking Ron the question a targeting screen from one of Ron's energy pistols came online.

"_Have you even seen the types of wounds that Centurion weapons make Du? This is too wide and unfocused. A Centurion blade would leave a thin burn down the centre. This looks like it's…a…acid burn?"_

Just as Ron finished there was a quick blur of motion from the energy pistols targeting screen as it was quickly drawn. It finished with a pink object blocking the scopes view. As the pistol was moved a Centurion energy blade came into Ron's main visual range, looking like it had come from over his shoulder. The blades tip touched the marine's armour next to the scorch mark and drew a thin line burn line down the armour in contrast to the wider unfocused line.

"_Yes that's the type of scoring a Centurion energy blade makes."_

Ron stood up and pivoted round, while his pistol stayed where it was. As the leader of the Reavers came into view, it was clearly seen that the pistol was under her jaw.

"_Thank you for helping me make that point Miss…"_

KPGW

The leader of the Reavers stood in front of Ron; he had his energy pistol under her chin. But he doubted that would do much, even at that range. Options open to him was running through his mind, even as he assessed the Centurion in front of him.

She was not alone, that was the first thing Ron noted. The other two female warriors he had seen on the cliff face were standing a couple of meters behind her about two meters apart. It gave them a good view of Ron and would allow them to flank him easily and quickly if he tried something.

The next thing he noted was weapons, aside from the leader the other two had no visible weapons. Of course Ron had gone up against enough Centurions to know that meant nothing. They had enough weapons built into the armour that at this range he was going to have to tread very carefully if he wanted to live. To live for more than three seconds he would have to play it cool. Try and strike up a conversation with the leader if at all possible.

"_You are honouring the dead?"_

As she said it she casually pushed the weapon under her chin to the side. With as much concern as if she was shooing a fly.

The voice that came out of the armour, while distorted was clearly feminine and _not_ the voice that had issued the challenge earlier. Ron quickly looked over at the bodies he had just moved, and it did look like he was separating them and laying them out for burial. He looked back at the Centurion in pink, noting that she was shorter than him. About 5'6" not including the crest on her helmet, Slim athletic build with not much around her chest.

He noted her companions, the one in green and black armour was slightly taller by about an inch. Slightly bulkier build but still athletic, she definitely had more in the chest department then her boss. Tan and teal was the same height as her boss, similar build to Monique with the boobs to match. Ron noted all this in a instant, but was looking to stall so he could get into a better position to get out of there. He wasn't however forgetting that there were at least nine more members of the war band out there.

"That's right, least I can do is give them a proper send off."

She nodded at his answer, before gesturing to her comrades.

"_Your fellow warriors died with honour, back to back with Centurion against Scren. We will aid you in this effort. You will be allowed to leave unmolested by my band after. Do you agree?"_

Ron nodded briefly, noting the name she had given him. A name he had heard before, in dreams of blood and fire.

"Sounds like a plan, Miss…"

Again she ignored the opening he gave her to give a name; she gestured to the field and gave a quick order to her warriors in Centurion. Ron smiled as he understood every word she said.

'That will come in handy later, very handy.'

Ron had always had a gift with languages, now was no different. Just as he put his pistol away Ron heard the warrior in tan and teal speak, he looked at her briefly. It was the voice from the challenge that morning, just as arrogant in person as she was that morning.

Ron then proceeded to ignore the Centurion warriors as much as he could as he moved the human bodies aside, checking the helmets to see if any had their memory chips intact. He was getting quite frustrated with the whole procedure; everyone of the helmets had been targeted on their memory chips. He placed the body with the other marines and took his dog chips. He then placed the weapons over in a separate pile with the ammo, grenades, med packs and other equipment he had stripped from the marines.

Ron turned back to the battle field just in time to see the green and black warrior place the last marine body on the pile. She threw the marines rifle at Ron, as well as a snarky comment.

"_Oh lookie, he appears to have had his memory chip destroyed as well. Guess you just don't build them well enough."_

Ron chuckled, as he had noticed something she hadn't. The marine she had just put on the pile wasn't wearing the mk 7 helmet, he was wearing the mk 8 helmet like Ron. That meant his chip was fine. Ron quickly went over to the soldier and reached around the back of his helmet, moved the armour plate to the chip and quickly removed his chip.

"_Wow there's a novel thought, you finally moved the chips location. That only took ten years. I wonder if you made the encryption any harder for us to crack, lets check shall we."_

Green and black went to grab the chip, only to find Ron's rifle at her throat aimed upwards. Green and black was obviously caught off guard; not expecting Ron to be able to bring his weapon to bear as quickly as he had from where it was slung at his side. She growled at him taking a step backwards, her energy sword suddenly appearing in her hand.

"_Enough. The human was promised safe conduct while we honour the dead. Put your weapon away_ _Shegotor, you to human."_

"Ah you're just pissed because she got all the optional extras for her armour, will you only got standard issue pinkie."

Ron quickly reached around the back of his helmet and opened the memory chips panel, he couldn't however place it in the secondary chip space. Pinkie took the card from him quickly and placed it in the slot, closing the panel. Ron looked at her.

"_Not all of what you see is as it is; the chip will allow your elders to see the truth at last."_

With that she turned back to the Centurion bodies, calling her comrades to her.

Ron quickly contacted the base.

"_Alpha leader … Mad Dogg one, have recovered memory chip. Will data dump all information to you. Over."_

With that Ron sent the entire contents of the chip to Felix, before grabbing up a pryro's fuel pack and emptying the contents over the marines. Once the canister was empty, he turned back to the weapons and grapped a couple more med pacs from the pile. He then activated a homing beacon, before he covered all weapons with a survival blanket and threw dirt over the blanket. He then headed towards his hover cycle, drawing his energy pistol as he walked past the dead marines. He fired one shot into the bodies, igniting the fuel over them.

As the bodies burned Ron got on the Hover cycle, checking the time. It had only taken 20 minutes to do the grisly task, looking back at the pryer for a couple of seconds. He then took one last look back at the Reavers before he fired up the cycle. Placing his rifle in its holder, he gunned the engine. Giving one last cry as he left, heading towards his second objective.

"Ahhh Booya."

KPGW

Charlie Mike = continue mission.

Ok I know it's been awhile since I updated anything, it's amazing how much time two little boys can take up. Anyway I thought I'd start with the one I've left the longest and work my way down. I am halfway through the next chapter of Patriot, and a third of the way through chapter 7 of Zoids.

For those that have been patient, thank you. I will try to be quicker with future updates.


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